SECTION CI

“Dhritarashtra said, ’After the ruler of the Sindhus had been slain in battle by Savyasachin and after the fall of Bhurisravas, what became the state of your mind?  After Drona also had been thus addressed by Duryodhana in the midst of the Kurus, what did the preceptor say unto him then?  Tell me all this, O Sanjaya!’

“Sanjaya said, ’Loud wails arose among thy coops, O Bharata, after the slaughter of Bhurisravas and the ruler of the Sindhus.  All of them disregarded the counsels of thy son, those counsels in consequence of which leaders of men, by hundreds, were slain, As regards Drona, hearing those words of thy son, he became filled with grief.  Reflecting for a short while, O monarch, he said these words in great affliction.

“Drona said, O Duryodhana, why dost thou pierce me thus with wordy shafts?  I told thee before that Arjuna is incapable of defeat in battle.  Protected by the diadem-decked Arjuna, Sikhandin slew Bhishma.  By that feat, O thou of Kuru’s race, the prowess of Arjuna in battle hath been well-tested.  Beholding Bhisma who was incapable of being defeated by the gods and the Danavas, actually slain in battle, even then I knew that this Bharata host is doomed.  Upon the fall of him whom of all persons in the three worlds, we had regarded to be the very foremost of heroes, who else is there upon whom we are to rely?  Those dice, O sire, with which Sakuni formerly played in the Kuru assembly, were not dice but keen arrows capable of slaying foes.  Even those arrows, O sire, sped by Jaya, are now slaying us.  Though Vidura characterised them to be such, thou didst not yet understand them to be so.  Those words, again, that the wise and high-souled Vidura, with tears in his eyes had then said unto thee, those auspicious words recommending peace, thou didst not then hear.  That calamity which foretold hath now come.  That frightful carnage, O Duryodhana, hath now come as the result of that disobedience by thee of Vidura’s words.  That man of foolish understanding who, disregarding the salutary words of trusted friends, followeth his own opinion, soon falls into a pitiable plight.  O son of Gandhari, this great evil, viz., that dragging in our very sight to the Kuru assembly of Krishna who never deserved such treatment, who hath been born in a noble race, and who practiseth every virtue.  Know that all this is but little, for in the next world dire consequences yet will be thine.  Vanquishing the Pandavas at dice by deceit, thou hadst sent them, into the woods, attired in deer-skins.  What other Brahmana, except myself, in this world, would seek to injure those princes that are ever engaged in the practice of virtue and that are to me even as my own sons” With the approval of Dhritarashtra, in the midst of the Kuru assembly, thou hadst, with Sakuni as thy help-mate, provoked the ire of the Pandavas.  United with Duhsasana, Karna then fanned that wrath.